How to break a new artist and get on Spotify editorial playlists

 

How to break a new artist and get on Spotify editorial playlists

If you’ve ever released a song or album on Spotify, you probably know how hard it is to get one of your tracks onto editorial playlists unless you’re signed to a major record label like Interscope or Capitol Records. However, it’s not impossible, and you don’t have to have a ton of experience or connections in the music industry to make it happen. I know this firsthand because I launched my own record label, Genre 22, on May 22, 2022, and I didn’t have a blueprint to follow for breaking a new artist.

Despite all the research, I did and the countless conversations and solicitations for advice, I always ended up back at the drawing board with no specific direction or blueprint. If you’re reading this, you may be feeling this way right now, or you may still be trying to figure out what to do next. I’m going to break down the exact process I used when launching the label’s first, brand-new independent pop artist, Hazy Shea (who also happens to be my daughter). Her fifth release ended up on four Spotify editorial playlists and over 800 other independently curated playlists. She also ended up getting booked for her first show at The Peppermint Club, a venue owned by Live Nation and Interscope Records in West Hollywood.

PREPARATION IS KEY

If you want to make sure your release has the greatest impact, I recommend preparing everything 30 days in advance of your planned release date. When we plan our releases, the date we focus on is the date we need to submit the music through distribution. I found that when focusing on the release date, we ended up running behind schedule on other key dates that were crucial to ensuring the music was ready in time to submit. Your distribution company should have adequate time to pitch the digital streaming platforms, and generally, 30 days is adequate time.

MAKE SURE YOUR RELEASE IS READY FOR DISTRIBUTION

Before you submit your songs to distribution, it’s important to make sure they’re mixed and mastered. Listen to the track on different speakers and in the car to notice any small things you might want to change. Aim to then have the track mastered and the files delivered to you three to five days before submitting to distribution. Depending on the song, mixing can make a huge difference and I don’t suggest you choose just anyone. I had to go through several mixing engineers to find someone who could mix my artist’s vocals in a way that made the track really pop.

MAKE YOUR DISTRIBUTOR’S JOB EASY

In my experience, the best way to make sure your distributor has everything they need is to have a streamlined internal submission process. Make sure you have social media collateral, images they can share, videos, and any other content that helps promote your release before you submit anything. We work closely with our distributor to ensure that the artists and repertoire representative who oversees Hazy Shea’s catalog has all the collateral needed to successfully pitch Hazy’s songs to not only the DSPs for editorial playlisting, but also to the brand partners they’re currently working with.

MARKETING ROLLOUT PLAN

When creating Hazy’s marketing plan, I decided to focus primarily on TikTok, Spotify playlists, and music influencers (press, bloggers, and executives), with a secondary focus on Instagram, SoundCloud networks, and her YouTube channel. We spent the bulk of our time gathering contact information, studying similar artists, and looking at content trends. Once we determined what content we would be pushing out on each platform, we were able to put together a content calendar and begin sourcing creatives like videographers who could help us execute.

Our plan evolves with each new release depending on the results of the previous release. I see a lot of rollout plans that don’t go into specific detail on the type of content that is going to be put out or how traffic is going to be driven to those channels.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Keep track of all the important deadline dates that lead up to the release date. For example, if you plan on running a TikTok influencer campaign, you should have the creative brief submitted to the influencers or the agency you’re working with at least three weeks prior to the release. Keep in mind variables such as if the actual TikTok influencers have been contracted for the campaign yet or if they still need to be sourced, as this will add extra time.

We typically have 15-20 deadline dates we’re managing for each release. A release date can seem far in the future until you start plugging in the other dates and realize you’re already behind schedule. We learned our lesson with Hazy’s first couple of releases that we needed to take a much more intentional approach. It’s easy to upload the wrong version of a song when you have multiple different versions with similar file names, or to realize you don’t have the press release drafted until the night before.

Once we moved our artist and label-management tasks from Google Sheets over to monday.com, it was a game changer for us. Another platform you can use to manage artist files and workflow is Tully, an app built specifically for independent artists. Regardless of the platform you choose, having a project management system is imperative, even if you’re only dealing with one artist. Your artist is a business and you have to manage your business in a scalable way in order to grow.

TRACK AND MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR EFFORTS

Once your campaign is complete, it’s important to track its success and continue to monitor each release after. Not everything you do will be able to be specifically attributed, but collectively, all the intention and effort you’re putting into each release should pay off for you and your artist. Structure and consistency are key.

Danielle Sabrina is a celebrity publicist and founder of Tribe Builder Media, an award-winning PR firm ranked #5 Best Company in America.